SevenSisters

A tire with a 45K warranty is not regarded as a good wearing tire. Look at all the 60K and 80K warranties out there. A 45K tire may however, may give better traction than a higher tread wear rated tire. It’s a trade off in many cases. However, a 45K warranty may also just mean a cheap tire and tread compound. Subarus are not known to be real tire eaters. Wear should be no worse than a FWD vehicle. That said, city driving is the worst for tire wear. Want high tire wear? Those tires may yield 100K if you just drove back and forth between LA and NY on the interstate. If you’re getting wear on inner or outer shoulders, but not both, it’s primarily an alignment issue. Tire warranties get you back to the dealer to buy another (third) set of the same crap Bridgestone tires. How did they prorate you? On the list price or a typical actual selling price? Did you pay a second time for valve stems, mounting and balancing? Pay for another alignment? Check TireRack or some other online dealer to see what the tire should actually sell for. If you paid anything other than a reasonable prorated tire price, you paid again for service and rubber you already bought last time. In my opinion, 44 psi is way too high. Stick with, or only slightly exceed, Subaru’s recommendations. Everyone disagrees with me, but overinflation leads to excessivve wear on both shoulders. Coupled with a toe ssue, it gets worse. Summary: You have low UTQG rated tires. City driving is rough. The dealer made another boat payment.

Probably because you didn't touch the engine for 5 years. A little preventative maintenance goes a long ways.

Check the brake switch and it's adjustment too.

I was going 3mph! No. Not you. Someone (slo5oh) answered and had a similar problem. Someone answer this. I see pics of Subarus fording streams and the like. How do you prevent this kind of problem?

My first generation Legacy will accept a full size spare in the well. Best investment you can make is a full size spare. Include it in the rotation.

http://www.caranddriver.com/article.asp?section_id=4&article_id=1993

When the water is high enough to reach the fan blades in Ohio, we don't call it a puddle. It's a lake. slo5oh, I can't imagine hitting 3 feet of water at 20 mph. Did it hydroplane or were you on Goodyears?

Josh, Is the anti-drainback valve internal or external to the transmission? I also had a steady trickle after draining the trans fluid and the same slight pause when going into drive or reverse. It would be nice to replace this w/o dropping the pan.

I'm sure you realize that even though you're not stepping on the pedal, the brake pads are still riding against the rotors and can squeak from the wear indicators or the pads themselves. Take a closer look.

Autozone.com has vehicle specific repair guides on their website. Not as good as a factory manual but worth a look and you can't beat the price.

Is there the slightest trace of oil under the car (engine or body)? You may have a seal that's leaking oil while driving (oil under pressure) and not when it's at rest. Maybe the oil pump?

The rubber seals used throughout the vehicle are oil resistant. I use Gunk Engine Bright which is mostly kerosene. Spray it on cold, let it sit and scrub a bit, and wash off. I haven't noticed any deleterious effects. Now the car will smell like Engine Bright for a few days.

Thanks Setright. I was totaly unaware that some production cars were using ceramic composit rotors until you're post. I owe you a Bjorne next time you're in Cleveland.

ceramic discs? Please expound on this.

Most sporadic problems with electric door locks are due to the wires from the drivers side contol breaking due to flexing every time the door is opened and closed. You need to do some wire tracing. Good luck.

I don't know anything about German cars, but a bad sensor will shut down the Subaru ABS system, at least on the 1st. gens, and default to the standard brake operation. 1st gen. Legacys have a diagnostic indicator under the passenger sear. Check the internet to see if the Caravan has a similar system. Good luck.

Good information to know. Thanks for the post.

What a relief when I opened the web site to see what was up. I though people may have been slamming Subaru about head gasket leaks, torque bind, wheel bearing failures, or Consumer Reports' below average reliability rating.

There are a lot of factors that are considered. Where does he live? How many miles per day to work? How large of a deductible does he want? Liability only? How were his grades? Going to college? Married? Any tickets? Accidents? A single, 18 year old, unmarried, with a red car and a previous ticket could pay a lot. Tell him what coverage you have and what you pay and visit a couple of agents and check the internet. Fortunately, a Legacy sedan isn't exactly a hot rod but horsepower is another factor that's used in the calculation.

http://endwrench.com/images/pdfs/WheelBearing.pdf

http://endwrench.com/images/pdfs/ReplacingInfo.pdf The OTC HubTamer is similar to the Subaru tools shown in the End Wrench article, but comes with adapters to fit most cars. Kind of overkill for the shade tree types but no more expensive than the labor of having someone else do the job for you. Plus, three other bearings may go out on your ‘ru. I believe it was designed for front wheel drive cars so an alignment wouldn’t be needed after removing the knuckle. Check toolparadise.com for a picture after searching for Hub Tamer. It works like wrenching in a bolt, but a nut is behind an adapter that goes against the hub or bearing races and floats. As a result, when you turn the bolt, the nut is pulled closer to the head of the bolt and the adapter pulls out or pushes in the hub or bearing. I had to do some finagling to keep the pressure off the tapered rollers, but it wasn't hard. You only really need a few of the pieces to fit the Subaru and some hard threaded rod to make a clone.

Do a search on this board for "torque bind" or "$800.00". You are experiencing an all to common Subaru problem.

Low mounted driving lights may help you see Bambi standing in the road but do little to illuminate chuck holes, road debris, and other pavement problems. You could mount them up high to get a better angle, like on the roof, or eat a lot more carrots.

My guess would be sure it can. I'm not sure what the mechanical advantage of the Hubtamer's 5/8" (?) bolt is, but I used a combination wrench to turn out my bearings using the spiral incline priciple. If you had a lathe, you could make the adapters and buy a hardened threaded rod and nut and do it too. A big press would sure be nice to have, but you have to remove the knuckle.

I doubt the car is a lemon but having it in for the same problem 6 times may qualify. It probably has a minor problem and should be repaired under warranty. Make sure your service requests are documented. It could be electrical or a lean misfire causes by an injector or something else altogether. Every 250 to 300 miles? How often do you fill it up? It may be something as simple as a loose gas cap. If Subaru can't fix it, ask them for the code and we'll try to help. Who's the dealer?